The 2023 Pioneer Days Rodeo and Festival played host this year to a long list of musical talent and big names in the rodeo world, and none was bigger than that of this year’s parade Grand Marshall and rodeo icon Marilyn “Cattle Kate” Jones.
Jones is none other than rodeo royalty and a role model for the younger rodeo crowd and she rode proudly through the downtown streets of New Boston as the Grand Marshall of the 2023 Pioneer Days Parade on Saturday, August 19, 2023.
Marilyn was born in 1939 and has been a cowgirl, rancher and rodeo cowgirl since she was a little girl. While growing up, she always made sure to keep riding and practicing for any rodeo she could get into. Her love for horses never waned. By the time Marilyn was 11, her family moved to the Texarkana area. She used to just hang out at Spring Lake Park, just to be with horses. She’d clean stalls, feed them and eventually get to ride them. During this time, she got the opportunity to join the Texarkana Quadrille (Precision Horsemanship). One of her first ventures in a Quadrille found her and her family in Fort Worth Texas (1954). The rodeo officials didn’t want to let her in the Grand Entry. They convinced them to allow it since she was competing in the Quadrille. Not only was she in the Grand Entry, the Texarkana Quadrille won the event!!
